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gp WINNETKA WEEKLY TALK, SATURDAY, MARCH 4, 1922 Outline History of the Winnetka Village Improvement Association BY WILLIAM A. OTIS The destruction of supposedly all the early official records of the Village Im- provement association, by the burning of the home of Mr. Willoughby G. Walling in 1919, necessitated the starting of en- tirely new books and files. In order, however, that there might be same record and information, even if informal in character, as to the activities of the So- ciety up to the present, it was suggested that an outline history, which might he inserted in the new records, should be compiled covering the period of the de- stroyed records. In attempting to do this, inquiries lead to the unearthing of a few old and for- gotten minutes of meetings. at the very beginning of the Association's existence, which in some inexplicable way had never gotten into the regular archives of the Society, and so had escaped destruction. Valuable as these are, they, however, are only limited in number, and do not in any way touch upon full tweny intervening years of useful activity, so the notes al- ready outlined, forming this sketch, were completed from the best information at hand, especially with the aid of the new light obtained from the resurrected rec- ords, in the thought that thus, the entire life of the Association would be covered. A Feeble Beginning As a small Village in the sixties, the amount of possible improvement at Win- netka was so enormous that evidently the average citizen was aghast and simply did nothing. There were, however, a few choice souls who had, if not much enthusiasm for so-called improvements, vet a certain kind of civic pride. They evidently foresaw future beauty. A pub- lic spirited man, Mr. Peck, early gave the Common to the Village, and the au- thorities had it carefully surrounded by a board fence--probably to protect it from the stray cow. The majority of the inhabitants, however, began with few and simple improvements. But they fortu- nately chose mostly the fundamentally important scheme of all, and the one which, as a matter of fact, has been the backbone of the present Association's policy;--viz., tree planting. These men loved trees, although they probably would have been ashamed to-put it in these words, but appregiating their future beauty, they certainly planted them gen- erously. The glory of east Elm street, that most beautiful of Winnetka's thoroughfares, is due almost entirely to the actual manual labor and real generosity of 'Old Joe" Sherlock--one of those characters most picturesque, when viewed at a distance. | He, indeed, owned considerable property | then, at what is now Sheridan Raad. ' To | g0 out west of the track and grub up | small Elms, and tote them on his hack, to plant in front of his own possessions, was possibly not so very untisual, but to take the time and expend the energy to plant both sides of the whole street COURT RULES THAT QUARANTINE MUST BE regard to quargn- Trg rust he ey quarantined, ner a ruling of the state supreme court which adjourned | the February term here. The decision was handed down in the case of Mrs. Jennie Baramore, owner of a rcoming house in Chicago, who was found to have typhoid bacilli and placed under quarantine. She brought habeas corpus proceed- ings in the supreme court against John Dill Robertson, then health com- missioner of Chicago, and Dr. Bunde- son, the assistant health commission- er, to effect her release on the ground that she did not have the typhoid bacilli and that the authorities had no right to quarantine her. The supree court, however, or- dered that she be remanded to quar- antine. STRICTLY OBSERVED from the Railroad east, is well worthy of honor and appreciation, especially when one considers and compares this attitude with that of about 150 lot owners now in Winnetka, who cannot find the time to do this even for their own park- way, requiring on an average only about three trees! Tree Planting Movement There was a similar tree planting move at several other though rather isolated, points in the town, as well as upon one or two beautiful properties, almost es- tates, one might call them. Aside, how- ever, from these thoroughfares, and the foresight of private owners, in the lines of planting, very little was done. As seems inherent in the very air 'of the town, the people were then, as now, apparently quite well satisfied with them- selves, and their surroundings. At that period of self-satisfaction and content with simple things, opposed blatant adver- tistng, laying out of sub-divisions, paving of streets, laying of walks, installing water-works and sewers, as well as all other changes. In fact, everything along the so-called line of 'improvements' that would destroy the country-like character of the town, and rapidly increase the land values by changing acres into small town lots with closely packed houses, and possibly uncongenial people, was se- verely frowned upon. There was a four board fence, as already spoken of, around the Village Common; there were, on sev- eral streets, plank walks, usually with numerous loose boards; and a little later occasional kerosene lamps served to make evident the night's blackness, while all roads were dusty or muddy, according to season, and all had deep ditches at the sides, that were not by any means to be ignored. A slow growth in the Village eventually forced changes, but they came only very gradually. As far as known, such a thing as civic adornment, other than the plant- ing of trees, was utterly unknown during a period of many years. If there was any such move it was due entirely to individ- ual and isolated initiative. New Station--New Winnetka During the early nineties the old Rail- way station, which was a small wooden affair on the west side of the track, and north of Elm Street, became so dilapidat- ed and shabby that even Winnetkans, conservative as they were, began to com- | plain, and a movement was started among a few of the residents to agitate for a new Station. As a result a meeting of about a dozen interested citizens was held one evening at Mr. James A. Hunt's resi- dence--to be exact, on April 24, 1895-- and Mr. James H. Miller was elected the first President, Mr. Hunt modestly re- fusing to be a candidate. This was the birth of the Improvement Association, and largely due to the efforts of Mr. Hunt, ably seconded by Mrs. Bertha Mandel de Windt, this scheme of a new Station was successfully carried through, and the present attractive brick building was »rected by the Railroad, so that op Thurs- day evening, December 19, 1896, a Village glorification and dedication of the build- ing, to which the notables of the Railway Company were also invited, was held in the new station under the auspices of the Improvement association. Incidentally it should be noted that an Elm tree, as a memorial to Mr. Hunt, the founder of the association, was planted by the society about 1910, near the north- west corner of the Common, and is now a fine tree of considerable size, but still lacking the memorial tablet frequently suggested. Birth of Civic Pride a, Sa," hl. taining the station started a new feeling of civic pride, and although it was, of course, not permissible for outsiders to criticize Winnetka in the least, yet an era of home criticism started that showed there was ample work to be done in the Village to make it even approximately vhat it should be. All this with the result that much of this work was seriously taken in hand, and much accomplished. The success of the association in ob- (To be continued next week.) will find full stocks sets, etc. colors in oil, mixing colors dry. 736 Elm St. "AT ECKART'S" We have set our prices so that it is to your advantage, as well as ours, to buy your needs here. Carpenters and Builders Painters and Decorators All their needs may be found here--white lead, linseed oil, turpentine, mixing J. F. Eckart Co. HARDWARE, PAINTS TOOLS, CUTLERY, GLASS | Telephone 844 of nails, sash weights and cords, butts, turns, lock colors dry, ready mixed colors in oil and ready mixed Phone 844 Winnetka, Illinois 805 Elm Street Blomdahl and Sundmark Winnetka For Quality Fo: OR the man with whom quality is paramount, but not at the ex- pense of style, we offer a selection of the new leathe ss and lasts in Footwear for this Spring, that is sure to please. The styles featured this Spring are the new square toe and conserva- tive English models. The leathers are popular Scotch grain and soft calfskin. Phone 1108 IS IS IS OO 561 Lincoln Ave. South Water Fruit Market "BUY HERE AND SAVE MONEY" WINNETKA, ILLINOIS Phone Win. 392 Our prices are never high Buy here and save money Bananas, doz. .... Fresh Strawberries, qt.......55¢c ....30c and up Fresh Cocoanuts, each .......10c aR TE TE Ry Fresh Mushrooms, 1b. .......59¢c doz. 75¢ and.... Lemons, doz. ..... Special Sale Indian River Grapefruit, per crate $4.19 Geeno Cooking Apples, per box........$3.25 Spinach, pk. Blue Goose Tomatoes, 1b. ...........0.vn.....R8c Head Lettuce, per bunch...........10c, 15¢c, 20c Fresh Carrots, 3 bunches for.................2%58c Green Beans, {qty cenis 4s aie sve vids ois eas i250 Celery. ih foiled ines vrs mes apne +20 10W. DriCE DELIVERY MADE MEENA IE EEE E ENE EAE AANA EEA AANAAR NARA EEA ON ORDERS OF $2.00 AND UP It Was 68 Degrees Above When We Wrote | Last Week's Ad--- And now it's pretty cold - - - thank you. It's pretty much the same with your car--they change from sweet running speed boys to sluggish canal boats but not so quickly. Every knock, miss, rattle or squeak 1s a sign of trouble --if you drive on and neg- lect them, more serious trouble will surely develop. Bring the old bus to us at the first sign of trouble. We are the authorized SERVICE STATION for the BUICK Richardson's Garage 724-30 Elm Street Phone Winnetka 25-841